


Other Side

by satancha



Category: Happy Tree Friends
Genre: Anxiety, F/M, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, and a bit of ocd tbh, flippy has a lot of anxiety, not beta read we die like men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-07
Updated: 2019-06-07
Packaged: 2020-04-12 00:44:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19121107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/satancha/pseuds/satancha
Summary: Flippy wants to enjoy his date with Flaky but things aren't going well for him at all.





	Other Side

Flippy sat on the chair, leaning on the table. His arms hugging himself, his nerves are going haywire. He starts to fiddle with his dog tag, trying to stimulate his senses to try and calm himself down. He looks at the clock, then to his watch, then at his phone. Then go back to hugging himself, then play with the dog tag, then look at the time.

 

Rinse and Repeat.

 

God, he’s nervous. Why wouldn’t he? He’s on a date! He’s not used to this at all. He’s never tried to ask anyone out on a date in the past. He was just content just being with himself and hanging out with his friends. And then the military came and then-!

 

His heartbeat increases to an uncomfortable speed. It’s hard to breath and-  _ was the restaurant always this hot? _

 

Flippy tries to snap out of it. If he’s not careful, then he might switch, and that’s not going to be a good situation to anyone in the cafe.

 

_ But what if it’s best that he’s not here? What if it’s best to just stop going out altogether? It’d be safer for anyone here in Sunny Side-! _

 

He jumps a bit in his chair, he grabs his dog tag a bit too hard, feeling the sting of the dog tag on his palm. He looks over to see Flaky standing beside him. She’s fiddling with her spikes and- oh god he can’t believe that she’s here. He snaps out of it and gestures to the seat in front of him.

 

“Flaky! You can- can take the seat over there! Please sit down!”, his heartbeat increases once again, his hands are sweaty and everything is a tad too loud. It’s like he reverted back to when he was a teenager whenver he’s had a little crush on one of the girls in his school. I mean, why wouldn’t he, she’s the prettiest thing he’s ever seen since he’s came to the town. 

 

He rubs his hands on his shirt, trying to dry his hands to at least to offer her a hand shake. That’s what you do on your first date right? You shake hands? He doesn’t know, it’s the most formal thing that Flippy could think at the moment, and-  _ oh god he actually held his hand up to try and shake his date’s hand. Is this even correct? He’s already screwed on on the introduction and things are going very bad-! _

 

He feels a hand on his own, shaking it slightly. He looks at her to see her giggle shyly, tugging her spikes behind her ear.

 

“I must say, shaking hands on your d-date is very charming, Flippy,” she remains eye contact with him, her smile ever present, and her already rosy cheeks just became even more red,  _ and gosh she’s just so beautiful and-! _

 

Flippy tries to get out of his trance and just gives her a chuckle, “I mean, can you blame me? You’re very b-beautiful, it’s only natural to t-try and impress you.” 

 

His face turns bright red at his sentence,  _ why won’t his mouth shut up, everything is just going in every direction, he might as well say the he wants to drown in her eyes, it’s not hard to be lost in them to begin with-  _ ok, Flippy needs to calm down to a degree that he won’t space out every three seconds whenever he’s with Flaky. 

 

He looks down to see that he’s holding Flaky’s hand a bit too long for a regular hand shake. He lets go and hope that she didn’t notice him being a dunce and spaced out while he shook her hand.

 

She looks down, obviously shy and so does Flippy. 

 

He doesn’t know what to say, he’s afraid that if he kept on talking, he’s just going to make a fool of himself and possibly scare her away.

 

Surprisingly, it’s her that breaks the silence between them.

 

She looks at him and tries to maintain contact, “Uhm, thank you for -uh- inviting me.”

 

Her hands are shaking and are now playing with her hands. Pure signs of nervousness. 

 

Flippy reacts immediately and if he was sitting in a single chair, it would’ve made a noise. He rubs the back of his head. He's not sure how to continue the conversation because there is so many going on in his mind.

 

“No, no! Thank you! I'm really happy that you're -uhm- here,” he trailed off. There’s a small smile on his face, and if he were looking at her, he would've seen the smile on hers too.

 

Both are quiet, not sure how to continue the conversation, but this is a date. What’s the point of going on a date if they’re not talking.

 

“You know, I'm really happy th-that you took my offer on a date,” he looks to the side “I just never thought that you'd do this,” he’s not sure how to continue the conversation-  _ wait what he said might be incriminating and might be offensive. Quick, quick, quick! Fix it, fix it, fix it! _

 

“I MEAN, IT'S NOT LIKE YOU WERE GONNA DITCH ME OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT. _ I JUST NEVER THOUGHT THAT THIS WOULD EVER HAPPEN IN MY ENTIRE LIFE AND I’M JUST NERVOUS AND SHY AND I’M GLAD TO BE HERE WITH YOU AND-!”,  _ he feels something on his hand and-  _ is she touching his hand? Oh gosh, he doesn’t know how to proceed, sure, they shook hands but that’s different, they’re hand holding!- ok, ok, ok. Calm down, concentrate, concentrate, concentrate. _

 

He looks at her, face pale and there’s tiny pricks of tears on the corner of his eyes.  _ Yup, he’s pretty sure the restaurant is this hot. Ok, ok, ok. Just focus on how soft her hands are, just concentrate. _

 

“It's ok, I understand.”

 

Flippy freezes.

 

Both of them are red in their face, each second brighter than the last. Their hands are shaking but they can’t help it. They’re new and-  _ are they really feeling butterflies in their stomach? _

 

Both of them are distracted staring into each others eyes. How can they not? Flippy just can’t help how warm her eyes are. He can feel how gentle they are and how caring she is. Oh he can go on about her. 

 

Flaky is just lost in his eyes. She just admires how out going he is. He’s not afraid to be open. She can feel just how gentle he is, she’s seen him in his garden. She just can’t help it.

 

Both of them are just in their own quiet world.

 

Until they hear a loud pop.

 

Both of them react, especially Flippy.

 

His heart beat increases rapidly and he’s sweating profusely. His head is light, his breathing is labored and he tries to calm down but he  _ can’t- Was that a gunshot? It was too tame to be a gunshot. Then what was it? A bomb isn’t too far off but then that must mean that the enemy must be getting closer- but it was too tame to be a gunshot and a bomb! Does the enemy have a weapon that we don’t know? Then how are we supposed to get out of this alive, I have to do something, I  _ **_have to do something-!_ **

 

He feels his mind clear and all of the surrounding sounds are blocked out. His face is devoid of any emotions, he can’t afford to mess this up. He grabs at the butter knife on the table. It’s the only thing on the table sharp and strong enough to do permanent damage. He stand up immediately and quickly goes to the other booth behind him. The disgusting Tigers aren’t getting out this easily. He looks over the booth and-

 

It’s a cub?

 

What’s a child doing here? It’s not safe. They’re in a middle of a war zone. How’d a kid get here this deep? He looks over the cub to see a man sitting next to him. The cub is crying and there’s a strange man sitting next to him.

_ Ah, so that’s how it is _ . He holds up the knife to aim at the eye and head better and-  _ the cub stopped crying? _

 

He lowers the knife to not frighten the child. But why did he stop crying? The strange man is rubbing the cub’s back comfortingly. He’s whispering something to the little cub and he’s smiling and hugging him-  _ oh. That’s his dad. _

 

He feels a prick at the back of his head and his head feels heavy and he closes his eyes, all of his senses going crazy, his head is buzzing, his eyes hurt to look, everyone is  _ loud, and the metal in his hand feels too cold and- _ he’s back.

 

He shakes his head clear of the remaining buzz of his head. He looks at Cub and Pop on their booth, with Pop feeding Cub his bottle.  _ What’s he doing on their booth? _

 

He feels a small tug on his shoulder and he turns to see Flaky look at him worryingly. He can see her mouth move but he can’t hear anything. His senses still aren’t clear. He rubs at his ears and questions Flaky what she needed. She looks at him concerned.

 

“I said, are you ok? D-do you need to get some fresh air? You seem tense a while ago.” 

 

What? Things aren’t adding up. What’s he doing at Pops table? Why wasn’t he sitting down?

 

Pop notices him tries to get Flippy’s attention, “Is there anything that you need?”

 

Flippy looks at Pops and then down to his hands, and he freezes. His face goes white and his whole body is numb. He quickly looks up at the cafe to see some people looking over as to why Cub was crying.  _ Oh god, he hopes that they didn’t see him flip out. This can’t keep happening. But it happened again and now everyone could’ve died and it would’ve been my fault and- _

 

Pops tugs at his sleeve and Flippy flinches at him, “Are you ok, Flippy?”

 

Flippy tries to calm down and see his way out of this situation, “I was just w-wandering if you -uhm- need this knife? It seems like y-you’re missing this utensil.” 

 

Pop looks at him grateful, “Thank you! It was hard to eat my food without the knife,” Pops takes the knife from Flippy’s shaking hand and he puts it on his napkin. “I appreciate it.” 

 

He turns to Cub and gets his attention, “Do you wanna say thank you to Flippy, Cub?” Pop points at Flippy, and Cub turns to him and-  _ he’s smiling to him like he’s an angel. Oh god, he could’ve taken that smile away with just a quick swipe. Why can’t he just be normal? Why? Why?  _ **_Why?-_ **

 

He can feel  _ him _ coming back from how stressed he is, and he can’t afford to bring him here, not where everyone is vulnerable and in danger because of him. He has to leave, it’s safer for everyone.

 

Flippy gives Pop a tight smile and he quickly walks out the door.

 

He’s hugging himself tight, he’s clutching on his uniform tight, not worried about it tearing. His eyes are filled with tears and everything is cold and hot and  _ god why can’t he just  _ **_calm down!_ **

 

A touch to the back has him jump around, ready to face anyone at this point. Did he just leave Flaky in the restaurant? Did he really just ditch her because of  _ what he is? _ He feels his stomach churn at the possibility that  _ he _ might’ve killed her.  _ But why is she here outside? _

 

“Flippy, are you alright? Can you tell me what's wrong?”

 

Flippy shakes his head furiously, he's having a hard time breathing, let alone speak. But he tries anyway, he just  _ can’t. _

 

“I -uhm- I have- I have to-”, it hurts to speak, his throat feels like it’s gonna close up. It just stings and there’s just a lump on the back of his throat. And  _ god he can’t breath. _

 

Flippy hugs himself to try and calm down or do anything than panic. He just can’t afford to do anything right now. It’s just too much. The sun is too hot on his skin, his hands are freezing to the touch, his knees are gonna buckle on him anytime if he doesn't push himself up.

 

Flaky doesn’t touch him again just to make sure he’s not overwhelmed. She’s at lost, she doesn’t know what to do.

 

“Flippy, are you-”

 

**_“I HAVE TO GO!”_ ** , he interrupts her with a shout, shocking both of them. But he’s too distraught to care cause right now  _ he has to leave and make sure everyone is safe from him. _

 

He sprints to his house where it’s quiet. He doesn’t stop even when he makes it to his house. He doesn’t stop until the doors are barricaded. And he doesn’t stop until he’s just covered in his blanket and his ears are covered with the muffler and make sure he doesn’t even hear a pin drop. He hugs himself tight and just tries to sleep.

 

He hope he doesn’t wake up at all.

  
  
  
  



End file.
